ISIL extremists surrender in Libya's Sirte

Several members of the ISIL extremist group surrendered late Tuesday to forces loyal to Libya’s unity government following fierce clashes in the northern city of Sirte, according to a military source.

He went on to suggest that they had surrendered because they had run out of ammunition.

In a related development, the general hospital in Libya’s northwestern city of Misurata (located some 240 kilometers from Sirte) said in a statement that it had received the bodies of five Libyan soldiers killed in Sirte on Tuesday in clashes with ISIL.

Military sources also said that forces loyal to the unity government had recently killed at least 30 ISIL militants in Sirte.

The same sources went on to estimate that only 50 ISIL militants still remain in the coastal city.

Since May, forces loyal to Libya’s Tripoli-based Presidential Council have been trying to retake Sirte from ISIL, which captured the city in early 2015.

In September, Libyan forces wrested most of Sirte from the militants, who now remain concentrated in the city’s eastern districts.